Most visitors to Slovakia rush between Bratislava and the High Tatras and drive straight past the richest corner of the country. The Spiš region, in the east, holds four UNESCO World Heritage Sites within an hour of each other: a walled medieval town, one of the largest castles in Central Europe, a wooden church built without a single nail,...
The bikes are at your door, the valley ahead of you, and the whole day yours alone.
No loading the car, no hunting for where to start. From Chalet Martuška in the Levoča Valley you get on a bike straight from the yard and you're on the trail within minutes. And the Spiš region isn't the Tatras -...
Christmas is meant to be the time you are finally all together. Instead, half the family ends up squeezed into a hotel room, you queue for Christmas dinner in a shared restaurant, and you share the tree with strangers.
A winter morning. You load the skis into the car, scrape the windows, crawl along in the queue to the resort and hunt for a parking space. By the time you reach the slope the children are grumpy and you are tired before your first run.
When did you last stand on a terrace with a coffee and see nothing in front of you but a valley? No plans, no meetings, no rush. Just you, the smell of timber, and the beautiful landscape of the Spiš region - gorges, a castle, Gothic art, and old lanes straight out of a magazine.
Slovakia has plenty...
You walk into a hotel wellness and a clock glows above the door. Fifteen minutes left on your slot. A stranger sweats across from you, someone takes a call beside you, and instead of resting you keep watching the time. A sauna is meant to relax the body. This only tightens it.
You went away as a whole family to finally be together, and by eight in the evening you're whispering in a hotel corridor so you don't wake the neighbours through the wall. The children wait by the swings for their turn. Your wellness is booked for exactly seventy minutes. You left the dog at home, because "it can't be done"....
